4 comments:

I heard the mercury was really rising in NYC that day. This scene kind of "looks like déjà vu all over again” (as Yogi Berra might have said). It could be 30 years ago. Only back then they would have been wearing Ray Ban Wayfarers and protesting against the atomic power plants in nearby Shoreham as well as Indian Point (which is still running, less than 50 miles upriver from NYC). The disaster in Fukushima has given everyone around the world pause to reconsider the safety of atomic power, I hope this protest in NYC can tap into the energy that once fueled a burgeoning anti-nuclear power movement in the US.

I often wonder what happened to the American no-nuke movement(s) of the 80's. I guess a moratorium on building new atomic plants and the collapse of the USSR zapped the sense of urgency that had kept those movements running full-speed. It’s a good reason for acting now while the iron, or reactor(s), is hot (despite what Colbert says here: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/378624/march-23-2011/the-word---over-reactor?xrs=share_copy). Still there were millions in the US who protested against both nuclear power and nuclear arms (and many thousands who were arrested - for mostly non-violent cd) during the 80’s so I think that energy is still there somewhere waiting to be channeled – and maybe some of it was, and is, in Occupy.

Thanks - your response is exactly the same answer someone from the Washington Peace Center told me - that the anti-nuke movement had been somewhat successful, achieved set goals. We met at the Global Article 9 Campaign Conference in Tokyo in 2008. At that time, there were 30,000+ participants, all working towards a "culture of peace" in Japan. Agree Occupy comes out of earlier movements and also think Hydrangea owes much to the 1960's peace (also anti-nuke) movement in Japan.

Thanks so much for the Colbert reminder. Saw that, but at the time too shell-shocked to absorb much...